The present invention relates to liquid dispensing devices with flow indicators. More particularly, the invention pertains to tracking information related to the amount of liquid poured from a liquid holding container.
The management of liquor dispensing and the collection of the corresponding receipts relative to the operation of a bar and or restaurant, has posed many problems for owners and management persons of such establishments. One such problem involves the attainment of a reasonable correspondence between the number of drinks poured and the cash received by the establishment for the poured drinks. In many bars and restaurants, liquor is liberally poured and many drinks may be provided free of charge. It has therefore been difficult for management to maintain an accurate relationship between the amount of liquor used relative to the net income of the establishment. While conventional shots of liquor are relatively inexpensive to the operator of the bar or restaurant, the overall expenses, including labor and overhead, necessitate a substantial charge for each drink. Thus, the profits involved in the operation of the bar or restaurant depend on accurate charging and maintenance of receipts relative to the corresponding drinks poured, mixed and served to customers.
The use of devices to monitor and indicate the amount of liquid remaining in a liquid holding container is well known in the art. One type of dispensing device, which is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,223 to Wilson, provides for direct monitoring of liquid via a pair of electrical contacts that extend (say from diametrically opposed locations) into a conduit through which the liquid in the container is dispensed. These devices employ the liquid to complete a circuit, thereby starting a timing or interval measuring counter means. The Wilson device, however, and others like it, will exhibit poor accuracy and or fail to detect liquid being dispensed slowly (i.e., with the container not fully inverted or substantially upside down), as the liquid dispensing conduit may not be passing enough liquid to suitably and consistently contact both of the liquid sensing contacts. Also, even if the liquid sensing contacts are suitably shorted via the liquid, if the dispenser is of the type that does not dispense a fixed amount of liquid (pre-measured via some means of the dispenser) the flow rate will vary as the liquid contained in the container or bottle is dispensed. As such, when pouring drinks and not using an external measuring means, such as a xe2x80x98shot glassxe2x80x99, the Wilson device and others like it are quite inaccurate. Further, the Wilson device appears to increment a count representing a pre-determined amount of liquid each time the sensing contacts are shorted, thereby indicating another predetermined volume of liquid has been dispensed, whether it has or not. Skilled persons will recognise a number of problems that are possible with such an arrangement.
An example of an improved version of the Wilson invention is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,871 to Luciani et al. The Luciani device includes liquid sensing contacts as well as a tilt switch to indicate when the container has been sufficiently tilted to begin counting. This solves the problems contemplated with regard to insufficient tilting, but still may suffer from other problems such as liquid slowly being poured with a slight tilt of the container, while the tilt switch is not activated. As such, the question becomes xe2x80x9cwhat is a sufficient tiltxe2x80x9d to close the tilt sensing switch.
Luciani also employs a pulse generator to generate a series of pulses when the tilt switch and liquid sensing contacts cause a counter to count. However, once set, the rate at which the pulses are generated is fixed and not adjusted dynamically to account for flow rate changes. Those skilled in the art will understand yet other limitations inherent to the Luciani device (and equivalents).
Another type of dispensing device, which is typified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,694 to Rolm, is usable with very large pressurized containers. These (Rolm) type devices do not contact or directly monitor the liquid contents being dispensed. Instead, a simple position sensitive (e.g., mercury) switch is employed to indicate when a valve or tap suitably coupled to the container is open. Most Rolm type systems provide very approximate estimates as to how much liquid xe2x80x98remainsxe2x80x99 in the container, and are no help in accurately determining how much liquid is actually dispensed and how many drinks are provided. Importantly, these systems (and equivalents) are inaccurate for several reasons. First the volume of liquid or fluid dispensed is indirectly determined via a time measurement. For example, Rolm employs a mercury or tilt switch to determine when a tap handle on the keg is in an open position. However, liquid will flow rate from the keg at slower rate when the tap is only half open. As such, devices like Rohm""s may not detect that the valve is (partially) open, or may detect it by assuming the valve is fully open. Accuracy is also affected by the fact that the pressure, and therefore the flow rate, may vary considerably with such pressurized containers. As skilled persons will understand, simple indirect measuring techniques can be inherently problematic when accuracy is important.
There are yet other devices known in the art, that solve many of the above problems, but these devices or apparatus are much more complicated structurally, include motors, tilt switches, etc., and are quite expensive when compared to the above discussed devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4.265,370 to Reilly provides for a electrically controlled valve means to be opened for a specific period, when the container or bottle is sufficiently inverted, thereby metering out a specific and known measure of liquid. However, a simpler and lower cost arrangement, not involving power consuming motors and solenoids, is most desirable. In addition, it would be desirable to have a simple and relatively low cost device that also provides an indication of a total monetary value associated with dispensed volumes of liquid.
Skilled artisans will therefore recognize the need for an improved liquid dispensing device that includes readouts or indicators to monitor, with a reasonable accuracy, the number of times the container has been tilted, the volume of liquid dispensed (say by way of a calibrated time duration), the number of times the device is removed from the opening of the container (i.e., for container changing), and or the total and unit cost of a volume of liquid that has been dispensed from said container(s). A full understanding of the present invention, including an understanding of a number of capabilities, characteristics, and associated novel features, will result from a careful review of the description and figures of several embodiments provided herein. Attention is called to the fact, however, that the drawings and descriptions are illustrative only. Variations and alternate embodiments are contemplated as being part of the invention, limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
A dispensing device is provided with flow indicators for tracking information associated with a succession of pouring events of a liquid holding container upon which the dispensing device is installed. Each respective pouring event is arranged to cause a pre-determined volume of liquid to be dispensed from the container, and pouring related information, such as a total number of pours since a reset event, a cumulative monetary value of the pours since a reset event, a total number pours since a master reset operation, a total monetary value of the total number of pours since a master reset operation, a number of disconnects of the dispensing device from respective containers, etc., to be collected and suitably made available to a user.
The dispensing device includes a dispenser portion adapted for coupling with an opening in an upper portion of the liquid dispensing container. The dispenser portion including a conduit having an open upper end, which is disposed above the dispensing device outside of the container, and an open lower end, which is disposed within an interior of the container when suitably installed upon the container. The conduit may be structured to enable liquid to be conveniently dispensed from the container when the container is in an inverted position. An embedded controller or controller unit is also included and contained (or housed) within a suitable housing that is fixed to the dispenser portion. Importantly, flow detecting means also housed substantially within the housing are provided and structured to detect a pouring event during which liquid is being dispensed from the container. The flow detecting means, such as a simple tilt switch or flow sensitive switch, is operatively coupled to the embedded controller to indicate when a pouring event commences and when a pouring event terminates.
A user interface is further provided to enable the exchange of information between a user of the dispensing device and the embedded controller. The user interface is also operatively coupled to the controller thereby enabling a user to input information to the dispensing device, and to enable the user to receive information from the dispensing device. The user interface is suitably fixed to the housing to enable a user easy access to preferred components thereof, including a keypad of momentary and possibly maintained switches and an LCD display.
The embedded controller of an electronic module may be arranged to determine when a pouring event commences, when a predetermined length of time has elapsed and the pouring event should end, and preferably provide to the user an end signal by way of an annunciator and or an audio tone. The embedded controller may most preferably be further arranged to update and provide to the user pouring related information (as indicated above).
Another aspect of the invention calls for the adjustment, say via the embedded controller""s application program, of a duration limit (or current duration limit) of pouring events by a predetermined correction increment, after at least one respective pouring event occurs. As such, as the liquid contents of the container are dispensed, an accurate correlation is maintained between the duration of a pouring event and a volume of liquid that is actually poured or dispensed from the container during said pouring event. The accuracy is maintained by adjusting a pouring event duration limit or interval so that a following respective pouring event takes a bit more time, compensating for the gradual decrease in the flow rate caused by the reduction of liquid in the container.